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Aug 4, 2008 10:16 pm US/Central
CBS 11 On The Hunt With DEA, Looking For Pot
Reporting
Jack Fink
DALLAS (CBS 11 / TXA 21) ―
CBS 11 News had an opportunity to take an exclusive look at how drug agents are spotting marijuana plants that are grown and hidden in wooded areas of North Texas.
After last year, the Drug Enforcement Agency and other law enforcement agencies now use their helicopters to spot pot plants.
Over and over, DEA agents seize thousands of marijuana plants. Last summer plants worth millions of dollars were found hidden in the wooded areas of southwest Dallas and the DEA expect more pot plants will be found this summer.
"We're in grow season. We're coming up on harvest season," explained DEA agent James Capra. "So we are coordinating with other agencies out there to fly some more missions and support those types of operations."
A CBS 11 News crew recently went up in a DEA helicopter to see where agents found pot plants last year and where they continue to search now.
Capra says they pay particular attention to 'public lands' - specifically, land owned by public utilities. The areas they target are in Southwest Dallas, near Joe Pool Lake and Mountain Creek Lake.
As we flew over Capra explained some of the criminal's methodology. "There's a water source here on your left. Right around the power lines, so they know there are access roads."
To the untrained eye, one island of plants looked a lot like marijuana, but it was actually milk weed.
Pilot Frank Paris, co-pilot Mike Duffy, and crew chief and aerial observer Steve Laird have already scanned the land from the sky this season.
"We fly low. Look for the weed and a lot of sources," Laird explained. "You got to have a water source obviously to grow it. Any signs of piping, generators - that's a clue."
Capra says it was this past May that through a thick canopy they spotted what looked like a green blanket from the air. In fact, agents discovered 600 marijuana seedlings that were ready to be planted. "We were out on another tip at another location, and just like we were today, flew in an area, spotted them and had to air drop our crews in there to get them," he said.
While the seedlings were rounded up and destroyed, the DEA didn't find the illegal growers connected with the plants.
Capra also says they don't have enough evidence to arrest and prosecute those who officials believe are connected to last year's pot plant seizures. "This is a trafficking organization. This is very, very big money. Typically what we've seen in the past are Mexican trafficking organizations who control much of this."
Capra says years ago, growers smuggled pot into the country, but that after September 11th the U.S. tightened the southwest border - so smugglers began looking to grow the plants in North Texas.
"Marijuana is still the number one abused drug in the United States," Capra said. "It's a huge cash crop."
The DEA did not spot any pot plants during our brief aerial tour, but continue their searching.
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